Holders for identification badges or cards are widely used by employees to hold identification information for badges or cards that provide access to certain facilities. Holders are also used in other contexts, such as for storing other types of cards, including debit cards, credit cards, and the like. Some holders are even designed to hold more than one badge or card. These holders may serve several purposes, including helping to protect the card or badge that they hold, providing a specific holding location for the badge such that the user does not misplace the badge, and providing easy access to the badge so that the user can quickly remove the card to identify themselves or use the card or badge for its intended purpose.
Badge holders are often made of a pliable plastic that allow the badge holder to be pinched to provide access to the badge they hold. Once the badge holder is pinched, the user can remove the badge by inserting his or her fingers into the space or cavity between the walls of the holder created by the pinching action. Badge holders may alternatively include a slot cut into one or more faces of the holder to allow a user's thumb or finger to urge or remove the badge from the holder. However, both of these types of removal systems have their disadvantages.
For example, repeated bending of the badge holder may create repetitive stress points on the badge holder or deformation of the badge holder that cause the badge holder to tear, fracture, or remain of such a shape that the badge holder does not properly retain the badge. Furthermore, large slots in the badge holder may allow foreign matter, such as dust and dirt, to enter the badge holder which can compromise certain features of the card. Additionally, each of the above-described removal systems usually require the user to use both hands to remove the card, including one hand for holding or manipulating the holder and the other hand for removing the card.
Other systems have been developed for removing a badge or card from a badge holder, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,813. However, these systems involve complicated assembly and only provide the ability to remove a single badge, or all badges, residing in the badge holder.